Of hurricanes and typhoons

What’s the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon? No difference, you say.

Unless you try to collect on storm damage. As some folks in New York and New Jersey are finding out, an insurance policy that insures against a “hurricane” pays out less than one that insures against a “typhoon.”

The implication is that a typhoon is somehow worse than a hurricane. As one who survived the 1938 hurricane, I wonder.

Joseph Conrad used the term “typhoon” when he wrote the definitive description of the violent storms that sometimes roar across the South China Sea. In my opinion, his short novel “Typhoon” has never been equaled in its description of the fury of wind and wave.

And ever since Dec. 17, 1944, “typhoon” has a grim resonance for the United States Navy. On that date the Navy was hit by a “perfect” storm that almost stalled the American invasion of Japan and nearly ended the career of Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, who was to become one of the Navy’s iconic figures.

Task Force 38, with Halsey in command, was about 300 miles east of the Philippines. It was a sizable force that included 13 aircraft carriers, eight battleships, 15 cruisers, and 50 destroyers. It had been engaged several days in heavy raids against Japanese installations on Mindoro Island, and was in the midst of a refueling operation when the typhoon struck. In the next 24 hours, three destroyers had gone to the bottom, a cruiser and five aircraft carriers were savagely damaged, 790 officers and men were killed, and more than 140 planes were put out of commission. The carrier, Monterey, was almost lost when loose aircraft on the deck set off an inferno. It was barely contained by the crew, which included Lt. Gerald Ford from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

It was the worst naval disaster since Pearl Harbor. The Japanese fleet would have logged a great victory, had it inflicted such damage in a naval battle.

Anyone who was ever on the deck of a World War II destroyer finds it almost beyond belief that such a ship could be sunk by a storm, no matter how powerful. But it happened. I remember the 1938 hurricane here in New England and how the sheets of driving rain stung like bird shot. That wind was rated at 100 miles an hour. That Pacific typhoon in 1944 must have been even stronger. Any sailors on deck probably were torn off and plunged into the wild seas even before the ships were upended and capsized.

Admiral Halsey afterwards tried to describe the catastrophic event. “No one who has not been through a typhoon can conceive its fury. The 70-foot seas smash you from all sides. At broad noon I couldn’t see the bow of my ship, 350 feet from the bridge. What it was like on a destroyer one-twentieth the New Jersey’s size, I can only imagine.”

A court of inquiry later found that Halsey had shown poor judgment in heading directly into the typhoon, instead of trying to avoid it. Halsey blamed the weather warning system. The final judgment of the court was that his errors of judgment were attributable to “the stress of war operations” and not from negligence.

But a few months later a second typhoon battered Halsey’s task force. Not so many lives were lost, but six carriers and three cruisers suffered major damage, the cruiser Pittsburgh lost its entire bow, and 140 planes on the carriers were lost or destroyed.

Once again a court of inquiry was convened. Should Halsey have done something different to avoid the storm? Once again he blamed the weather forecasters. The court eventually decided that both Admiral Halsey and Admiral “Slew” McCain (father of Sen. John McCain) showed poor judgment. The court suggested that they be relieved of their sea commands and assigned other duties. But Halsey had become something of a national hero and the Navy brass didn’t want to lose his skills. He kept his command, eventually received his coveted fifth star and has a secure place in naval history. Some say that Admiral McCain was unfairly blamed for the disaster.

According to the account in Walter Borneman’s authoritative book “The Admirals,” “Nimitz was privately furious with Halsey and ‘minced no words’ in charging Halsey with gross stupidity in both typhoons, especially the latter . . .”

But just as Gen. Douglas MacArthur escaped dismissal after his planes were inexplicably destroyed on the ground the day after Pearl Harbor, Admiral Halsey successfully rode out the storm after the two typhoons. No question that he was a devoted and skillful commander, but also no question that he made two colossal blunders.

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